Medical Writers and Peer-Reviewed Journals: Understanding the Rules and Responsibilities.
18 June 2007, NetworkPharma Ltd, Oxford, UK have published another in their new KeywordPharma series of Expert Reviews intended for individuals working in and around the global pharmaceutical industry.
Medical Writers and Peer-Reviewed Journals is now available for purchase. Liz Wager explains the concerns about the role of medical writers in developing peer-reviewed publications and helps writers and communications companies keep abreast of recent guidelines and new journal policies.
Medical writers perform an invaluable role in the dissemination of scientific information, in particular the publication of clinical trial results. However, their work has not always been acknowledged. The pharmaceutical industry has endured much criticism of how it reports clinical trials. High-profile abuses of publication ethics from within the industry have fuelled suspicions of the sector and, by association, damaged the reputations of responsible writers and communications companies. This has led to escalating calls for greater transparency in the relationships between journals, medical writers and pharmaceutical sponsors. Many journals have responded by establishing and enforcing stricter guidelines on the publication of clinical trials.
Editors and readers have responded to concerns about conflicts of interest in publications by demanding greater information on individuals involved in developing publications. Policies of disclosing individuals’ contributions to publications have increased awareness of the roles of company employees previously hidden from public view and brought about wider acknowledgement of the work of medical writers.
This Expert Review, Medical Writers and Peer-Reviewed Journals: Understanding the Rules and Responsibilities, looks at the complexities of reporting clinical trials and the important role played by medical writers. It outlines guidelines affecting medical writers that are being adopted by many journals and medical editor associations. It calls on journals and sponsor companies to work together to embrace transparency and to agree best practice in the publication of clinical trials.
The author, Liz Wager, said: "Coordinating and publishing clinical trials is a multimillion-dollar global market involving international companies and huge numbers of people. Peer-reviewed journals are an indispensable part of the process. However, many journals are only now becoming aware of the complexities of pharmaceutical research, with published guidelines and some journal conventions failing to reflect the real world."
All KeywordPharma publications can be purchased from ThePharmYard at www.ThePharmYard.com
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About the author
Elizabeth (Liz) Wager is the author of books on 'Getting Research Published: An A to Z of Publication Strategy' and 'How to Survive Peer Review'. She is a co-author of 'Good Publication Practice for Pharmaceutical Companies' and the European Medical Writers Association guidelines on the role of medical writers. After obtaining a First Class zoology degree from Oxford in 1983 she worked for Blackwell Scientific Publications, Janssen-Cilag then Glaxo-Wellcome. In 2001, she set up her own company, Sideview, which provides training, writing, editing and publication consultancy services. She is a member of: the BMJ’s Ethics Committee, the World Association of Medical Editors Ethics Committee, the Council of the Committee on Publication Ethics, the editorial board of European Science Editing (the journal of the European Association of Science Editors) and the World Health Organization Scientific Advisory Group on trial registration.
Written by pharmaceutical industry specialists, KeywordPharma publications are designed to be authoritative, relevant, succinct and helpful to pharmaceutical industry executives in their day-to-day work and in their longer term career development. Available to purchase individually as e-documents, they build into a specialist knowledge library for everyone working in and around the global pharmaceutical industry.
Developed and managed by NetworkPharma Ltd, ThePharmYard provides instant access to a unique database of specialist information which is particularly relevant to individuals working within the medical and pharmaceutical industries around the world. Titles from a diverse range of independent publishers are available to purchase in electronic document format for immediate access.
NetworkPharma Ltd is an independent, specialist company founded by Peter Llewellyn, to focus on novel approaches to disseminating information within the global medical and pharmaceutical industries. Peter Llewellyn previously founded and built the leading industry portal site, InPharm, which was subsequently purchased by John Wiley & Sons to manage alongside their other industry services, PharmaFile and Pharmafocus.
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